Andover Gift Raises Questions About Accepting Donations

A $500,000 gift to a leading private school has triggered a national
debate about when it is appropriate to accept donations and when
schools should instead politely say, "No thank you."

The trouble began for the Phillips Academy after it established a
scholarship fund in the name of former President George H.W. Bush.
Contributors included wealthy admirers of the Andover, Mass., school's
famous alumnus.

But when one such admirer, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin AbdulAziz
Alsaud of Saudi Arabia, sent half a million dollars to the $3.3 million
scholarship fund at the school, controversy raged.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and the
Pentagon, Prince Alwaleed criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East,
leading then-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York to reject the
prince's $10 million gift for the victims of those attacks.

If New York City rebuffed Prince Alwaleed's money, critics wondered,
shouldn't Andover have done so as well?

"I think it is a totally questionable thing for Andover to
do—to accept this gift," Eric Liu, a former policy adviser to
President Clinton and one of many critics, said during an appearance on
CNN.

Mr. Liu eschewed the notion, however, that the gift had been a bid
by the prince to curry favor with the Bush family, as another
commentator had suggested. "The idea that an extra $500,000 to a
scholarship fund in the president's name is going to tip the scales
somehow is a little bit laughable," Mr. Liu said.

The elder Mr. Bush knew nothing about the scholarship fund,
according to Sharon Britton, the director of communications for
Andover. He has not commented on the gift, but a White House spokesman
said the current President Bush—also an Andover
graduate—believed it was given in good faith, Ms. Britton said.
Officials at the 1,100-student Phillips Academy, which has a total
endowment in excess of $450 million and charges $28,500 a year for
tuition and room and board, believed they acted appropriately in
accepting the money last month regardless of Mr. Giuliani's action.

Prince Alwaleed "made a statement he felt he was free to make, and
the mayor was free to return his gift, and that's what America is all
about," Ms. Britton said.

Broad Guidelines

Guidelines for accepting donations are broad, subjective, and vary
from school to school, said Helen Colson, a consultant to independent
schools.

In her book Philanthropy at Independent Schools, Ms. Colson
outlines principles of good practice for schools to follow when raising
money, including: using gifts only for the purposes for which they were
intended, allowing donors to make anonymous gifts, disclosing the total
amount of donations a school receives, and not accepting gifts in lieu
of tuition.

Independent schools, moreover, often decline donations that have
strings attached, according to Ms. Colson. "No one wants to accept a
gift that changes school policy or procedure," she said.

Many schools declined to comment on their policies regarding
donations. A spokesman for St. Albans School, a prominent private
school in Washington, wrote in an e-mail: "Though we do have
gift-acceptance policies for all donations received, I'm afraid this is
something we're not in a position to offer insight into."

Some experts warn of donors who may try to use the good reputation
of a school or organization to better their own images.

G. Douglass Alexander, the founder and president of the
Atlanta-based philanthropy-consulting firm Alexander, Haas, Martin and
Partners, said serious ethical issues arise when a donor expects a lot
of publicity for giving money.

Prince Alwaleed, who did not seek publicity for his gift to Andover,
has invested heavily in many U.S.-based companies. In 2001, he was
ranked the sixth-richest man in the world by Forbes
magazine.

Others say it isn't anyone's business from whom schools accept
money.

"People are free to complain," said Steven Lee, an ethics professor
at Hobart & William Smith Colleges, in Geneva, N.Y. "But there
really is no moral basis for their complaint unless the money is
morally tainted." Such money would come from such sources as organized
crime, Mr. Lee said.

People throughout the education community apparently are willing,
however, to accept money from some donors who have gotten into trouble
with the law.

For instance, the Milken Family Foundation, which has given more
than $250 million to education-related initiatives since its inception
in 1982, was founded by the financier Michael Milken, who served 22
months in prison after pleading guilty in 1990 to five securities and
reporting violations and one charge of conspiracy. Education
Week is a former recipient of grant money from the foundation.

Such questions aren't limited to private schools. Public schools
also need to be cautious when accepting donations, said Arnold F. Fege,
the director of public engagement for the Washington-based Public
Education Network.

"The responsibility to fund public schools lies with the taxpayers,"
he said. "When money comes from elsewhere, the benefactor must not
require a quid pro quo." Donors to public schools should not, for
instance, demand that a specific curriculum be taught, Mr. Fege
said.

Public schools need to consider the source of donations carefully,
he added. "I wouldn't accept money," he said, "from distillers or
cigarette companies."

Schools should establish clear policies about outside funding, Mr.
Fege advised, "before they face the pressure of some disingenuous
contribution."

'No Strings Attached'

In deciding whether to accept a gift, Andover always considers the
source, according to Ms. Britton. "You don't want to take money if you
think it is ill-gotten," she said.

The school refuses money from tobacco companies. Still, it is rare
that fund-raisers at the school need to decline an objectionable gift.
"Somebody who is interested in exploiting children probably wouldn't be
interested in helping a school," Ms. Britton said.

School officials have also turned down gifts in the past, Ms.
Britton continued, "if someone tried to attach a condition." She added,
"We don't want to be hamstrung.

"If someone tried to set up a scholarship fund for boys who play
tuba and are from Montana, we would try to convince people to take the
condition off it, so that we could provide scholarships to the best
kids, the brightest kids, and the most deserving kids."

Prince Alwaleed's gift, she stressed, "came with no strings
attached."

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